"...what would you think

of this world which turns itself steadily
Into an oblivion that hurts, and hurts bad?

Would you curse me my careless caressing you
into this world or would you rise up

and, mustering all your strength into that tiny throat
which one day, no doubt, would grow big and strong,

scream and scream and scream until you break the back of one injustice..."

Excerpt from Poem to My Child, If Ever You Shall Be by Ross Gay

For  Darnella Frazier, who, with her cellphone recording of George Floyd’s murder, “broke the back of one injustice.”  For Mah’kia Bryant, Duante Wright, Adam Toledo, and all of the children who should still be here. For the  trans youth of the South who are fighting new waves of legislation that would criminalize their existence.  

We need youth vision and youth power now.  We need movements of healing, protection, and abolition to bloom over our world like a California mountainside.  

Join us Thursday April 29th to revel in the power of two youth organizations, Afrofuture Youth and Yollocalli Arts Reach, who are leading the kinds of cultural and political transformations we need.  This event is the first in the Allied Media Projects Bloom Speaker Series. 

ASL, CART, and Spanish translation will be provided for all Bloom events.  

An estimated 10-12 million people live in the U.S. in a constant state of fear because they lack legal documentation of their right to be here.  For many, this reality is compounded by racism, transphobia, and other layers of violence.  Join us for a conversation with media-makers and immigrant justice leaders committed to dismantling fear and advancing freedom dreams.

Lead to Life invites you to witness their new ritual film “between starshine and clay” as a practice in decomposing violence together across distance. By honoring the land, reflecting on its history, and reaffirming our relationship to our ancestors in blood and soil, we will explore afro-diasporic ceremonial practices as a strategy to heal our past, present and futures. 

• Caring for Yourself to Take Care of Others: A Burnout and Vicarious Trauma Toolkit by Larissa Pham
• The seven types of rest that every person needs.  By Saundra Dalton-Smith, MD
• Brought to you by People in Education, Expression Through Line is a wonderful activity to playfully create space to check in on students’ individual and collective wellbeing that anyone can teach or learn!
• Call on Me Not the Cops is a culturally-specific roadmap by 18 Million Rising create to help Asian Americans have conversations with their families about finding safety with each other, not the police.
• A video primer on defunding the police made as a collaboration between Project Nia & Blue Seat Studios.

• “Resilient little thing, just like mama made you...” MisterWives’s song SuperBloom Visualizer will get you in the mood for Spring.
• Revel in the panoply of Black American culture in Detroit with the online archive of the inaugural Obsidian Theater Festival. 
• What brings more joy than the sight of tiny green shoots emerging from seeds? Learn how to start your own garden with these tutorials from the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.